Educate Your Stakeholders!

Who decides what's best for a website? Highly skilled professionals who work with the site's users and serve as their advocates? Or schmucks with money? Most often, it's the latter. That's why a web designer's first job is to educate the people who hold the purse strings.

Diffily, Shane. List Apart, A (2007). Articles>Web Design>Collaboration

The Effect of Informative, Intriguing, and Generic Hyperlink Wording on Web Browsing Behavior  

This paper presents a study of the effect of informative, intriguing, and generic hyperlink wording on Web browsing behavior. The study was administered via the Web using a modified naturally occurring informational Web site. Link wording was varied in both the navigation menu and links embedded in the text. Data about participants' browsing behavior were logged with PHP scripts, and demographics, perceptions, and comprehension were measured through a post-browsing survey. Data from the study are being analyzed and will be presented at the conference.

Evans, Mary B., Carolyn Wei, Matt Eliot, Jen Barrick, Brandon Maust, and Jan H. Spyridakis. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Web Design>Diction>Hypertext

Effective Search Engine Submission Strategies

Now that you've got a website it's time to start thinking about promoting it. Search engine listings are the number one way to generate traffic to your website.

stevenforsyth.com (2005). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>Search Engine Optimization

Effective Web Writing

You can use writing techniques to exploit the Web's strengths while avoiding its weaknesses.

Kilian, Crawford. New Architect (2001). Articles>Writing>Web Design

The Effects of Line Length on Reading Online News

This study examined the effects of line length on reading speed, comprehension, and user satisfaction of online news articles. Twenty college-age students read news articles displayed in 35, 55, 75, or 95 characters per line (cpl) from a computer monitor. Results showed that passages formatted with 95 cpl resulted in faster reading speed. No effects of line length were found for comprehension or satisfaction, however, users indicated a strong preference for either the short or long line lengths.

Shaikh, A. Dawn. Usability News (2005). Articles>Web Design>Typography>Usability

The Elements of User Experience  

The Web was originally conceived as a hypertextual information space; but the development of increasingly sophisticated front- and back-end technologies has fostered its use as a remote software interface.

Garrett, Jesse James. JJG.net (2002). Articles>Information Design>User Experience>Web Design

Elephants in the Living Room: The Destructive Role of Denial in Web Design

Four of your fellow development team members, all trying to do their specific jobs to the best of their abilities, have the power to sink your best effort at interaction design. As an interaction designer, it is your job to see they don't do so. (If you are not an interaction designer, read on anyway; you may be surprised to learn that you may be part of the problem.)

Tognazzini, Bruce. Nielsen Norman Group (2000). Articles>Web Design>User Interface>Collaboration

Embedding Hamlets

The open source Hamlets framework can help aid your Web development and properly separate content from presentation. The OSGi framework provides an excellent tool for development on embedded devices. Together, the two frameworks work as a team to provide browser-based interactivity to the humblest gadgets -- such as the lowly coffee maker. Read on to find out how it works.

Rene Pawlitzek. IBM (2007). Articles>Web Design>Embedded>Java

The End of the Hit Parade

Once upon a time, if it was on the web, it was good. If it did tricks, so much the better. And how did a company know if its website was really good? Of course, by measuring traffic. The more traffic, the better, right?

Jaleshgari, Ramin. CIO Magazine (2000). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Log Analysis

The End of Web Design

Websites must tone down their individual appearance and distinct design in all ways: visual design; terminology and labeling; interaction design and workflow; and information architecture. These changes are driven by four different trends that all lead to the same conclusion.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2000). Articles>Usability>Web Design>Interaction Design

Engagement: The Definition Debate

I know what engagement is (everyone does), but I don't know what it means or how to explain it, let alone how to measure it. In a digital marketing context, I think it's one of those words that everyone understands but can't define.

Mason, Neil. ClickZ (2007). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design

Enhancing HTML Documents With ActiveX  

ActiveX is definitely a technology buzzword--but what is it, really? How does it work? Is it something that would benefit me as a writer? How can I utilize it? Technical writers are increasingly being called upon to combine new publishing technologies with writing skills. ActiveX technology provides new ways for writers to enhance their HTML documents with little or no actual programming involved. This workshop presents the various technologies associated with ActiveX, along with functional demonstrations. The goal of the workshop is to provide an overview of ActiveX that can serve as a starting point to further research and implement the technology.

Vincent, Bill. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Web Design>Programming>ActiveX

Enterprise Information Architecture: A Semantic and Organizational Foundation

People disagree on what happens when IAs grow up, but Tom Reamy offers a foundation for information architecture as it advances, grappling with problems across the enterprise.

Reamy, Tom. Boxes and Arrows (2006). Articles>Information Design>Web Design

Enterprise Portals: Tip of Which Iceberg?

Summarizing recent CMS Watch research on portal software, Janus Boye finds that portal technology represents just the tip of the enterprise information iceberg. But given the diversity of portal scenarios, you should ask yourself which iceberg you're on.

Boye, Janus. CMSwatch (2006). Articles>Web Design>Content Management

Review: Eric Meyer on CSS: Mastering the Language of Web Design  

When I first looked at this book, I was very much impressed with its layout. There are lots of beautiful and clear examples, along with well laid-out pages. Chapters consist of various CSS projects, such as creating an events calendar. You can download companion files for each chapter in zipped form from a Web site the author has set up. So the book is in fact an instructional one, one that you can use to learn as you go or just read straight through, depending on your preference.

Hawley, Todd. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>Reviews>Web Design>CSS

eRuby: Using Ruby and MySQL for Dynamic Web Pages

In a previous tutorial you learned how to get started using the Ruby language as a web scripting language by embedding it in HTML. You need some type of database connectivity to do the cool dynamic stuff. So here is a tutorial written by Markus Jais on how to connect to a MySQL database using Ruby. I will be updating and editing this tutorial to include more windows instructions where applicable.

Jais, Markus. Hiveminds (2002). Articles>Web Design>Databases>SQL

Escritura Hipertextual

La escritura hipertextual, que tiene como unidad básica el enlace y como soporte lógico el electrónico, se debe realizar de forma diferente a la escritura convencional. A los usuarios no les gusta leer en pantalla, por lo que agradecerán cuanto más les facilitemos dicha tarea. En este artículo se tratará la correcta presentación de contenidos y elementos de interacción (enlaces) en los documentos hipertextuales.

Hassan Montero, Yusef and Francisco Jesus Martin Fernandez. Nosolousabilidad.com (2003). (Spanish) Articles>Writing>Hypertext>Web Design

Ethics and the Internet

As the Internet permeates ever more domains of social and political, and even personal, life, and as its technological capabilities expand, the problem of Internet ethics will become ever more central, perhaps even more so than in 'ordinary' life.  The potential for abuse grows with use, as well as with technological power.

Ornatowski, Cezar M. Lore (2002). Articles>Web Design>Ethics

Ethics Online: Looking Toward the Future  

As the profile of the average Internet user changes from academicians, scientists, and computer specialists and hackers to the general populace, the increased usage is beginning to show the weaknesses of the system and the vulnerabilities of its users. An ethical understanding of the issues can help to address concerns. Privacy and access are two main areas that must be explored as new codes of ethics are designed and implemented.

Turner, John R. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Web Design>Ethics

Evaluating Forms

To demonstrate an example of some accessibility issues in HTML Forms, the following content intentionally has accessibility errors.

Abou-Zahra, Shadi. W3C (2004). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Forms

Evaluating the Usability of Educational Websites for Children

This study examined the usability of educational websites for children. Children ages 7 - 11 performed seven search tasks with one of three websites. Overall, participants, especially those less than 10 years of age were not very successful. Terminology, number and organization of links, location of information above the fold, and length of individual pages all influenced performance on the tasks.

Naidu, Shivashankar. Usability News (2005). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Children

Evaluating Web Sites for Accessibility

This document outlines approaches for preliminary review Web site accessibility, and for evaluation of conformance to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. While it does not provide checkpoint-by-checkpoint testing techniques it does include general procedures and tips for evaluation during development of Web sites, and for monitoring of established Web sites. Other resources will be developed for in-depth compliance testing. The measures described here are intended to supplement an organization's existing procedures for content management and quality assurance on their Web sites. For information about why making Web sites accessible is important read the Introductions on the WAI Resources page.

W3C. Articles>Accessibility>Usability>Web Design

Evaluating Your Web Site's Content  

Whether a web site is in its creation stages or it has been in place for a while, it can benefit from evaluation. Like all technical communicators, web authors must determine who their audience groups are, determine their needs, and determine the strengths and weaknesses of the site based on the needs of the audience groups.

Funkhouser, LaVonna F. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Web Design>Assessment

Evaluation of an Informational Web Site: Three Variants of the Think-aloud Method Compared    

To evaluate Web sites, usability experts often use methods that were originally employed for the evaluation of software applications. In doing so, they assume that these methods will work exactly the same for both types of test objects. However, there is a major difference between transactional software applications and informational Web sites, a difference that could have an effect on the workings of various usability methods. As such, we felt that it was valuable to repeat one of our previous studies in which we compared concurrent think-aloud protocols, retrospective think-aloud protocols, and constructive interaction to evaluate a Web application, this time using a Web site. The results of our study showed that in some respects, the methods did work differently depending on the test object they were applied to. However, we conclude that the three methods are largely interchangeable and that the decision to choose one variant of the think-aloud method over the other should be based on practical considerations.

van den Haak, Maaike J., Menno de Jong, D.T. and Peter JanSchellens. Technical Communication Online (2007). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Methods

Evaluation of Digital Libraries Using Snowball Sampling  

This article describes how snowball sampling was applied in two different cases to evaluate digital collections. The first digital library was evaluated by conducting in–person interviews with survey participants. For the second digital library, an e–mail survey was mailed to site users. The results are compared and a cost–benefit analysis is provided. The author concludes that the convenience of an e–mail survey is not necessarily the most effective way to survey users.

Peterson, Elaine. First Monday (2005). Articles>Web Design>Assessment>Surveys